


Weapons Maintenance

by alissabobissa



Category: Legend of the Seeker (TV)
Genre: Banter, Gen, Kahlan and Cara do indeed want to make out but not in this story, daggers: the sharp kind and the staring kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-12 02:00:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20556359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alissabobissa/pseuds/alissabobissa
Summary: Late night weapons and girl talk.





	Weapons Maintenance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lunar47](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunar47/gifts), [twit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/twit/gifts).

> Set sometime mid-season two. 
> 
> This fic was originally written in 2010 for twistdmentality who might someday get her wish to see these two braid each others' hair, and for lunar47 who told me I'd end up loving Cara when I had doubts last season. :) 
> 
> I own nothing in regards to these ladies or Legend of the Seeker.

She was nearly asleep when she heard it. _Scrape_. There was a time not long ago when the slightest noise in the night would have had her on her feet, twin agiels out and ready to strike. _Scrape, scrape_. But she knew her companions and their habits too well now. What should have been an alert to danger was now just an annoyance she wished was only mild. _Scraaaape_. Opening her eyes and sighing, she smiled smugly to herself.  
  
“Are you going to do that all night?” Cara asked, rolling over to face the small fire and propping herself up on an elbow. Kahlan sat a few feet away, dagger in one hand and a rock in the other, frozen as if caught stealing. She stared across the flames for a moment.   
  
“Just until it’s sharp enough,” Kahlan mumbled.   
  
“Then you’ll be at it all night.” Cara smirked. “You’re not doing it right.” Whatever reaction she was hoping for finally came at that. The woman across the fire turned away and all Cara could see was her dark outline as she heard three sharp scrapes in a row. She couldn’t help but chuckle and wonder how many other people knew exactly how to irritate the Mother Confessor into sulky, quiet fury.  
  
Cara sat up fully and poked at the fire with a stick, listening to the scrapes as they got louder and more drawn out. After a few moments, a huff came from across the fire followed by a soft thud and a clank.   
  
“I’d be happy to show you how to properly care for your weapons, Confessor.” Kahlan turned around to find Cara grinning at her.  
  
“I know how to keep my daggers sharp.”  
  
“Clearly you don’t.”  
  
“And what would you know of it? Your weapons are blunt instruments of dark magic.” Kahlan shifted and stood, leaving Cara wondering if she expected a fight. “I’ve been fighting with sharp points since I was a girl.”  
  
Cara stood and closed the distance between them. “Not sharp enough,” she said, smiling arrogantly and looking down and back up to meet blue eyes, “from what I can tell.” The other woman frowned, let out a hard breath, and rolled her eyes.   
  
“Fine.” Cara took a step back and put up her hands. “I was just trying to help. Maybe get some sleep tonight, but I suppose you’ll do what you want.” She crouched to roll up the blanket she had been lying on and then sat in front of the fire to resume poking at it with a stick. Cara never looked up, but could feel Kahlan’s gaze on her as she made the fire crackle and pop.  
  
“Can you show me how you’d do it without grinning like a cat wiping bird feathers from its mouth?” The Confessor’s tone was that of exasperation, but when Cara looked up she saw a twinkle in her eye and a quick smile she might have missed if she’d blinked.  
  
“I’ll do my best,” was her answer. Kahlan moved to Cara’s side of the fire and took a seat next to her. She wordlessly handed the dagger and rock to the Mord Sith before crossing her arms and focusing on her weapon in Cara’s hands.  
  
Cara turned the dagger over and examined both sides for a few moments then set it on her lap. The other woman raised her eyebrows but didn’t say a word. Cara was just about to smirk when she remembered that she had promised to avoid grinning. It only made her want to smile more smugly, but she refrained and made a show of removing her leather gloves. It really was satisfying to watch the Confessor become more and more wound up, especially when she was following the rules.  
  
“It is a good blade,” said remarked, sliding her finger along the dagger’s edge. “In the right hands, it wouldn’t even need to be all that sharp to be effective.” She caught Kahlan’s eye and let the comment hang there for a moment, just long enough for Kahlan’s eyes to narrow. Cara couldn’t stop the grin that flashed wickedly across her face as she explained, “Your skills with these weapons are formidable. I’m not sure why you’re wasting valuable time that you could be resting to sharpen them.”  
  
Kahlan huffed. “Either show me or go stand watch with Zedd. I don’t need your advice or your praise, no matter how halfheartedly it’s given.” Cara made a face that was as close to a shrug as a face could get and held out the dagger and stone before her.  
  
“It’s all about angle. You can take the dagger across this rock all you like, but if you don’t do it at the correct angle you are just making a really irritating sound.” She demonstrated by quickly scraping the edge across the rock. _Scrape, scrape, scrape_. “See? Angles,” and she thrust the blade and rock back at Kahlan.  
  
“That’s it? You scrape a rock three times and that’s supposed to be a revelation?” Kahlan looked as if she were going to laugh.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
And this time she did laugh. “For being someone who ‘trained’ people, you are not very good at teaching.” Kahlan took the dagger in hand and slowly dragged it across the stone. Looking satisfied, she repeated the action a little faster.  
  
“No, no, no. Like this,” Cara said, grabbing the dagger and demonstrating just as quickly as before. Kahlan chuckled, and it was Cara’s turn frown and narrow her eyes.   
  
“Slower. Do it slower,” the smiling Confessor advised. The glare Cara shot at her accompanied a deep breath of resignation followed by a lengthy scrape of metal on stone. “Better. Now hold it closer to the flames so I can actually see it,” Kahlan said leaning toward Cara.  
  
“You giving me pointers on teaching now?” Kahlan tried to hide her smile, and Cara simply frowned and repeated her technique a few more times.   
  
“It’s not like I don’t know what you are doing,” Cara said a few moments later to the sounds of scraping.  
  
“Really? What am I doing?” She didn’t sound astonished or annoyed. The Confessor was probably doing that patronizing thing she did sometimes that she thought a Mord Sith like her would never pick up on, Cara reckoned.   
  
“I know you better than you think. You aren’t that big of a mystery.”   
  
“No?”  
  
“No. You should have just told Zedd that you would take all the watches tonight.” Kahlan gave her a questioning look and Cara smiled slyly. “If you were going to stay up all night worrying about Richard, then you should have at least put it to some use and let smarter people sleep.”  
  
“I’m not–” the other woman started and then stopped to take a breath. “I always worry about Richard.”  
  
“Yes, but lately, with Richard training at the Palace of the Prophets, you’ve been particularly… ” Cara looked at the fire and squinted trying to find the right word. “Well, not getting any sleep isn’t doing Richard or you any good!” She stood up suddenly and took a few steps towards the trees, needing to get away from Confessor all of a sudden.  
  
Cara stood at the edge of the trees, facing away from the camp, and closed her eyes for a moment. “I’m going to relieve Zedd,” she said. “Someone should get some sleep around here.” Without looking back, she walked through the trees barely hearing the sound of metal scraping against stone.


End file.
